Park Service to host Pickett's Charge event

A battlefield guide leads a tour at the Virginia State Memorial, the traditional launch point for a walk recreating Pickett's Charge, in this 2008 file photo. Leading groups such as students on such walks in formation is common practice among battlefield guides, but the walk planned for this July 3 will be the first of its kind. (THE EVENING SUN -- FILE)

Visitors to Gettysburg this summer will have the opportunity to take part in one of the most pivotal moments of the battle like they have never been able to before.

The National Park Service will host a Pickett's Charge commemorative march on July 3, during which visitors will be able to walk in the footsteps of Confederate soldiers exactly 150 years after they first made the fateful charge.

"Typically the visitor is not a participant in this," said NPS supervisory historian Scott Hartwig. "Many people have ancestors who fought and the experience of walking the field is a very moving experience."

That is why the Park Service decided to take up the task and host what is expected to be a very large event, Hartwig said.

Park rangers will organize anyone who wants to participate into brigades and the march will end with the playing of Echo Taps.

"This event was tragic and very meaningful for a lot of people," Hartwig said, so the Park Service wanted to commemorate it in an important way.

The Park Service has also planned for 200 additional interpretive programs for July 1 through 4, all of which are listed on the Park Service's new Commemorative Events Guide, which is available on its website.

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